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Related Story Minneapolis NAACP Branch President Defies Membership Vote, Continues Parent Information Center Project

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By Doug Mann

WASTEFUL SPENDING PATROL -- Job Opening: $130,000 per year plus benefits.

Yes, that's $130,000 per year plus benefits for the director of two proposed Parent Information Centers that will be run by the Minneapolis Branch of the NAACP.

On March 25, 2003 the Minneapolis NAACP president, Albert Gallmon (who served on the Minneapolis School Board until January 2003), signed an agreement with the state and received $152,000 for expenses related to setting up two Parent Information Centers. The NAACP may receive up to $381,000 for allowable expenses during a 6 month period ending September 30, 2003.

The "Revised Parent Information Centers Budget" for a 6 month period ending September 30, 2003 includes $65,000 for a director, $47,000 for counselor(s), $21,000 for an administrative assistant, plus $26,000 for benefits.

The money for the Parent Information Centers comes from the state, but originates from a $2,650,000 federal grant to support Minnesota's Voluntary School Choice Project. The grant application, dated August 16, 2002, proposes "...two new Family Information Centers, staffed with knowledgeable NAACP personnel who will be able to offer comprehensive information on the school choice options available at all urban, suburban, charter, and interdistrict schools in the program..."

A Conflict of Interest?

Although the proposed Parent Information Centers are supposed to promote the Choice is Yours Program (where impoverished students can get free busing to attend participating suburban metro area schools) and other public school enrollment options for students in poor performing schools in Minneapolis, this project should not be confused with the establishment of Parent Information Centers that was a provision of the original settlement of the NAACP's lawsuit against the state of Minnesota for failing to provide an adequate education for students of color in the public school system.

There is no way that the NAACP could have agreed to run the Parent Information Centers proposed in the settlement of that lawsuit, because they were the plaintiffs in that legal action. The NAACP has an obligation to see that the state, the defendant, is doing what it agreed to do under the settlement. The conflict of interest would be rather obvious.

However, the Parent Information Centers were negotiated outside of the agreement to settle the lawsuit with the state. Since the Parent Information Centers are not formally part of the Choice is Yours Program, the NAACP can argue that it's relationship with the state as a service provider in this instance is not improper or illegal.

What's Wrong With This Picture?

Since its takeover in 1999 by a faction supported by the Democratic Party and the Links (a social club for rich and almost-rich black people), the Minneapolis NAACP branch has functioned like a club for social climbers, not a civil rights organization.

Since June 1999 there has not been a K-12 Education Committee functioning within the by-laws of the NAACP branch, except briefly in 2002 with Sandra Miller serving as the committee chair. Miller was elected to the Minneapolis Board of Education in 1997 and opted to not stand for reelection in 2001, instead mounting an unsuccessful campaign for City Council. Miller stood for election to the Minneapolis Board of Education and recieved less than 1% of the votes as a write-in candidate in 2002. Miller resigned from the post of NAACP branch K-12 education committee chair in the Fall of 2002, citing an apparent conflict of interest due to her status as a candidate for the school board.

Traditionally, the NAACP has fought for changes in the law and public policy to make all public schools good schools and eliminate the academic achievement gap between black and white students. And a lot of progress was made toward those goals during the 1970's and early 80's. For example, on National Assessment of Educational Progress exams, the difference in average reading scores between black and white 13-year-olds declined by about 50% between 1971 and 1988. By the end of the 1990s, this test score gap had increased by about 75% from where it was at in 1988. [The New Crisis (NAACP magazine), Sept/Oct 2001, "Long Division," p. 25-31, graph on page 28].

Now the NAACP is "partnering" with people who are responsible for implementing policies that have produced a widening of the academic achievement gap between whites and blacks since the late 1980s. Instead of fighting to make all schools good, the NAACP is now supporting "voluntary integration / school choice" programs that are remarkably similar to those set up in the Deep South (Alabama, Mississippi, etc.) during the 1960s.

The Minneapolis NAACP branch leadership has been quite open about its desire to develop a friendly, nonadversarial relationship with the state and the Minneapolis School District. While a sitting member of the Minneapolis Board of Education in 2002, Albert Gallmon was elected to the position of 1st vice president of the Minneapolis NAACP branch and became branch president upon the resignation of the president-elect immediately after the elections. And it should be noted that at least one officer and member of the executive board, e.g., Sam Richardson, the assistant treasurer of the Minneapolis NAACP branch, was recently an employee of the Minnesota Department of Children, Families and Learning (now the Minnesota Department of Education).

The Minneapolis NAACP branch leadership has also been extremely secretive in its dealings with the Minneapolis Board of Education and the Minnesota Department of Children, Families and Learning. For example, in relation to the educational lawsuit, the NAACP was represented in settlement negotiations with the state by a secret committee which included Matt Little and Barbara Bearman, who were not members of the NAACP at the time because they had been expelled from the NAACP by its national executive board.

It is time to get the NAACP off the gravy train and back into the business of opposing the victimization of black and poor people in the public school system. The NAACP should back out of the deal to put the Minneapolis branch in charge of the Parent Information Centers and establish a K-12 education committee that functions as an advocate for students that the NAACP claims to represent.

About the Author: Doug Mann is a South Minneapolis resident who has been a gadfly in local education politics for many years. Mann also ran unsuccessful campaigns for the Minneapolis School Board in 1999, 2001, and 2002. Vinny's Education Coalition, the operator of SouthHighSucks.com, found him to be the best candidate for the 2002 general election. Mann continues to be involved in local education issues, and frequently participates in the Minneapolis-Issues List, in addition to operating his own website, http://educationright.tripod.com, where he regularly posts new articles of interest to education reform advocates. Mann's writings will also appear right here at SouthHighSucks.com on an occasional basis.

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